The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. These ICs include semiconductor light-emitting devices, such as Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
Traditional methods of fabricating the semiconductor light-emitting devices focus on manufacturing LEDs one-by one. A manufacturing entity receives a multitude of individual LED dies. Wire bonding is used to electrically connect each of the LEDs to contacts on their respective dies. Phosphor glue is mixed by hand and then applied to the LEDs one-by-one. Lenses are then molded over each of the LEDs to encapsulate the LEDs, and the lenses can be made of an optical glue.
The aforementioned process has some disadvantages. In one aspect, the one-by-one nature of the process can be quite inefficient and may result in very long manufacturing times for a batch of LED devices. Also, the hand-mixing step for the phosphor glue can be a relatively costly manufacturing process. Additionally, when the phosphor is very close to (or in contact with) an LED, it can experience thermal wear over time that can lower phosphor thermal efficiency. Therefore, while existing methods of fabricating light-emitting devices have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in every aspect.